Squid Bright Green Field CD

The debut album from Bristol’s Squid, already one of the most highly anticipated releases of 2021. Produced by Dan Carey, Bright Green Frield is an album of towering scope and ambition, it is deeply considered, paced and intricately constructed. With all band members playing such a vital and equal role, this album is very much the product of five heads operating as one.

The band have released the first single lifted from the album, ‘Narrator’, which ricochets from funk strut to screeching chaos via the melodic touch of guest vocalist Martha Skye Murphy.

Some bands might be tempted to include previous singles on their debut - and the band already released  two more in 2020 via ‘Sludge’ and ‘Broadcaster’ - but instead Bright Green Field is completely new. This sense of limitlessness and perpetual forward motion is one of the the key ingredients that makes Squid so loved by fans and critics alike.

Bright Green Field features field recordings of ringing church bells, tooting bees, microphones swinging from the ceiling orbiting a room of guitar amps, a distorted choir of 30 voices as well as a horn and string ensemble featuring the likes of, Emma-Jean Thackray and Lewis Evans from Black Country, New Road.

Whilst the album title conjures up imagery of pastoral England, in reality, it’s something of a decoy that captures the band’s fondness for paradox and juxtaposition. Within the geography of Bright Green Field lies monolithic concrete buildings and dystopian visions plucked from imagined cities.

Formed in Brighton, Squid is the brainchild of Louis Borlase (Guitars & Vocals), Ollie Judge (Drums & Lead Vocals), Arthur Leadbetter (Keyboards, Strings, Percussion), Laurie Nankivell (Bass & Brass) and Anton Pearson (Guitars & Vocals).